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Eurydice

EACEA National Policies Platform:Eurydice
Key data on early childhood education and care in Europe - 2025

Comparative Reports

Key data on early childhood education and care in Europe - 2025

24 January 2025

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is a basic right for all children and a foundation for lifelong learning. It plays a critical role in reducing inequalities and enhancing women’s participation in the workforce. This third edition of Key data on early childhood education and care in Europe aims to help build accessible, inclusive and high-quality ECEC systems by providing policymakers, researchers and parents with detailed data and examples of ECEC policies across Europe.

The first part of the report includes indicators on access, governance, funding, staffing, curricula and monitoring, showing how these areas are connected. New additions since the previous edition include insights into inclusion, funding, staff working conditions, and salaries. The curriculum section now addresses topics such as sustainability education, digital awareness and safety, and early foreign language learning, to meet the changing needs of young children.

The second part of the report delivers a national perspective, with information sheets that outline the main features of each ECEC system, including structural diagrams for easy reference.

The report covers 37 European countries: the 27 Member States of the EU, plus Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia and Türkiye.

You can also consult our visuals on the system-level indicators on early childhood education and care which explore the main aspects of the situation in Europe regarding the right to affordable ECEC of good quality for all children.

Have also a look at the previous version of Key data on early childhood education and care of 2019.

Latest Comparative Reports

Recommended Annual Instruction Time in Full-time Compulsory Education in Europe – 2024/2025

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Effective learning depends on many factors, but undoubtedly, the instruction time available to students plays a key role in their learning process. Along with the quality of instruction and the time available for learning after school, the increase in the amount of instruction time allocated to a discipline can help to raise students’ interest in that subject and can have positive effect on students’ performance, even more when the increase is accompanied by other support measures and directed at disadvantaged students.

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2024 - Eurydice publications

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Teachers and school heads salaries and allowances in Europe 2022/2023 – Fact sheet

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The fact sheet provides key findings on salaries and allowances of full-time, fully qualified teachers and school heads. It covers 39 education systems within the Eurydice network and is based on the most recent data for reference year 2022/2023.

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Key data on early childhood education and care in Europe - 2025

24 January 2025

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is a basic right for all children and a foundation for lifelong learning. It plays a critical role in reducing inequalities and enhancing women’s participation in the workforce. This third edition of Key data on early childhood education and care in Europe aims to help build accessible, inclusive and high-quality ECEC systems by providing policymakers, researchers and parents with detailed data and examples of ECEC policies across Europe.

...